Here is a piece of material
from the Guardian newspaper. Unfortunately we don't know
the date but it's certainly two/three years old.
It is quite a difficult text. Watch out for the cultural references
- you could cut the introduction & also the last line of the
Cow Fights festival.
Careful about not offending any of your stds with the content
of the article!
You could limit the amount of festivals used to the number
of stds you have in your class.
The ranking is a bit strange too - you could omit them or
say they relate to the writer's interest.

Here are some ideas:

You need to copy the article & cut it up into the different
festivals - one for each stds & also create a chart like the
one below for each std.

1. Intro to 'Festivals' - Easter festivities coming up discuss
what stds are going to be doing, discuss a local festival,
know any dangerous ones, which famous festivals would they
like to go to...
Could introduce a few connected words: festival, festivities,
to celebrate, a celebration etc. Pictures of some festivals
would help.

2. Titles of festivals - predict the content -
see the chart below - you could explain the purpose here
ie that they are going to read about some bizarre festivals
to find out about them & also to see if they have any preferences
in common. In pais discuss ideas for each festival

3. Handout a description from the article
to each std - stds read & fill in the description section
on their chart. Teacher takes the descriptions back

4. Stds mingle to fill in the other descriptions - they rely
on their own descriptions to descibe to others who then write
a description on their charts. You could encourage them to
explain the other descriptions they have on their charts gleaned
from the other stds.

5. When all have completed the charts, they individually
decide the top three festivals of interest - number the festivals
in the ranking column on the sheet.

6. Stds mingle again to find someone who has similar tastes
in festivals - they sit down together & give reasons for their
choices to see if there are any similarities. The teacher
could hand out the top choice of each pair for them to consult
the original version of the festival.

7. General feedback - teacher chairs a class discussion -
which is the most/least interesting, know of any other bizarre
festivals etc. Feedback on the language that cropped up during
the two mingles & pair work discussion.

8. As yet the stds haven't got all of the text, just their
bits, so it is difficult to draw out any language area. You
could give it out now but as it is quite difficult you could
easily get bogged down. There are some meaty language areas
all the same. I would tend to see what language cropped up
during the lesson & respond accordingly. You could prompt
the stds before the mingle activities & the pairwork on the
language of explanations, giving reasons, clarifying, etc
- the language areas they will need at each stage. This would
possibly make it a richer activity from the viewpoint of language
use by the stds - instead of relying on their standard stock
of phrases they could be made to stretch themselves a bit.
As the activities are going on you could get around, listening
& teaching individuals. Make notes as you do so that you can
draw the language together at the end.

9. Follow up activity - in the pairs they were in at the
end the stds now invent a new festival & write a short review
of it. These are then circulated for all to read & possibly
vote on for interest & imagination values.

Chart:

Name of festival

Description

Ranking

The Bun Festival

The Cat Festival

Near-Death Pilgrimage

Cow Fights

Seaman's Day

Naadam

The Luhya Circumcision
Ceremony

La Tomatina

The Bayreuth Wagner
Festival

The Moose Shit Festival

The Hunger Hooting
Festival

The Caci Whip Duels

Text:

Strange
days

If you find the same old acts are clogging
up the nation's fields, the more intrepid festival goer
may care to venture a little further afield for a truly
memorable experience. Bill Borrows is your guide A festival
doesn't have to be middle-class tossers from the home
counties wearing ethnic print T-shirts, drawstring pants
, and "eye-catching" headgear, taking mind-altering
substances and sleeping with their friends in rotation.
Take my word for it, it can get a whole lot more mental
than Jocasta dropping acid for the first time and giving
Toby one off-the-Wrist even though she's supposed to
be seeing Angus and Toby hasn't really got over Phoebe
yet. There are plenty of festivals weirder than Glastonbury.

Here are some of the best, with details
of when and where and a rating out of 10 indicating
the chances of bumping into anyone with parents who
"made a lot of money in the eighties". Ten is bad news.

THE KEPPEI KRABTASTIC WORLD CRAB-TYING
CHAMPIONSHIPS (May, Australia) 2/10
Not really what you might expect from a nation dedicated
to the cult of machismo. Whereas American rodeo riders
rope cattle and steers and then jump from moving horses,
the brave inhabitants of Keppel Sands (Queensland) take
10 steps into an arena filled with big crabs and try
to tie their claws together before getting nipped. Almost
unbelievably they are forced to go barefoot. Only a
militant vegan would consider this cruelty towards animals.

THE BUN FESTIVAL (May, Hong Kong)
4/10
This is a festival which has lost some of its edge since
a bad accident in 1978 saw a huge bamboo scaffolding
decorated with buns collapse and injure several people.
It is still, however, pretty bizarre. It is designed
to placate the spirits of the dead (victims of either
the plague or the pirate Cheung Po Chai in whose lair
- Cheung Chau Island - it takes place) and as a concession
to the spirits of the animal kingdom is entirely vegetarian.
The "floating children" appear on the third day, the
main day of festivities, but are actually juveniles
in hidden harnesses on top of poles. Leave the acid
at home. Buns are now handed down from the scaffolding
to stop intoxicated revellers climbing the traditionally
unstable structure.

THE CAT FESTIVAL (May, Belgium)
7/10
Belgium is something of a surprise package on the festival
scene. The Cat Festival in Ypres is only one of many
but, given that (until 1817) it used to involve throwing
live cats off a belfry to see if they would land feet
down, it deserves a mention hare. Today the cats are
made of material but the original impetus for the event
stemmed from a rising cat population. No doubt there
was a huge campaign not to ban the pastime conducted
along the same lines as that recently co-ordinated here
by the pro-hunting lobby. "You just don't understand,"
the wealthy, in-bred and slightly dim burghers of Ypres
will have argued. "It is the most humane method of controlling
the cat population. We have personally seen them drag
babies from rudimentary perambulators and rip their
heads off. Have you?" It should be noted that the annual
goat-tossing from the church belfry in Manganeses de
la Polvorosa (Spain), although outlawed since 1992,
still continues and involves the almost certain death
of an animal. Perhaps the pro-hunting lobby can relocate.

NEAR-DEATH PILGRIMAGE (June, Spain)
1/10
Since the death of Franca, Spain has gone festival-mad,
indulging both its predilection for over-the-top sanctimonious
religious worship and a well-documented love of partying.
This is a festival held in Pontevedra, Galicia, for
people who consider themselves lucky to have escaped
death that year. Taunting the Grim Reaper to a reckless
degree perhaps, many arrive in coffins before jumping
to their feet. Amusingly, one person en route to the
festival in 1994 was killed instantly when his car collided
with a coach.

COW FIGHTS (June, Switzerland)
10/10
Not really a festival as such, more a case of humans
in Valais making a spectator event of the natural competition
for social ascendancy between Herens cows - slow bovine
creatures of minimal worth -in ad orgy of horn-locking.
Much like the Tara and Tamara column-inch war in this
country.

SEAMAN'S DAY (June, lceland) 9/10
Only really listed here for its cheap gag potential
but still a 100 per cent guaranteed bender with enormous
potential for death by alcohol poisoning. A rare opportunity
to eat both blackbird and penguin.

NAADAM (July, Mongolia) 1/10
The major festival in the country is called "The Three
Manly Sports" (or, in Mongolian, "Eryn Gurvan Nadom").
Those sports are wrestling, riding and archery. It is
a nationwide event and competitors wear tight-fitting
shorts and a harness over a bare chest. This uniform,
they are loath to disclose, was introduced a couple
of centuries ago to confirm that those involved were,
indeed, men. This measure was introduced after a champion
wrestler subsequently became identified as a woman.
The sound heard at the time was believed to be that
of either Genghis Khan or Attila the Hun, or possibly
both, turning in their graves.

THE LUHYA CIRCUMCISION CEREMONY
(August, Kenya) 2/10 (until it appears in Mane Claire)
Not much room for gender identification problems here.
This is an annual event held in Kakamega between the
18 tribes who farm the area. It is a massive initiation
party for teenage boys which, unlike this country, does
not involve sniffing glue, buying a copy of Fiesta or,
indeed, driving one. Not for the squeamish.

LA TOMATINA (August, Spain) 6/10
Held in Bunol, near Valencia, this amounts to the biggest
food fight in the world. It is a hormone. charged free-for-all
involving 110,000 kilos of tomatoes and any person able
to throw a ripe red borderline fruit/vegetable at anyone
else Origin depends upon perspective, it was either:
(a) a bizarre political response in 1945 to the continuing
influence of Franco or (b) a chance occurrence after
a lorry-load of tomatoes spilled on to the streets of
Bunol around the same time. Whatever. It is the most
fun it is possible to have within the constraints of
the law, involving, as it does, underage boys and girls,
fruit/vegetables and extreme violence. This is a solid-matter
variant of the Wine War in Haro (also Spain). Use your
imagination.

THE BAYREUTH WAGNER FESTIVAL (July,Germany)
0/10
A really strange one this, dedicated as it is to Stephanie
Powers' co-star in Hart To Hart and the former husband
of Natalie Wood. But where's the logic when David Hasselhoff
is the number one recording artist in Germany?

THE MOOSE SHIT FESTIVAL (July,
USA) 5/10
When the snow melts in Alaska it reveals millions of
fields full of moose shit. Alaska is a lonely country
and, consequently, the inhabitants of Talkeetna arm
themselves with what's at hand for the annual festival.
The line-up of events includes dancing, drinking and
throwing slit at targets and each other. Whatever is
left over is used to make jewellery, which, presumably,
was where Gerald Ratner did most of bulk-purchasing.

THE HUNGER HOOTING FESTIVAL (August,
Ghana) 2/10
In Accra, the firing of guns and incessant drumming
indicates a good harvest and the beginning of the festival
to celebrate it. Citizens run around shouting, "Thursday
people, Thursday people" which commemorates the day
of the week the founders of the city -arrived there.
It is, basically, a huge feast with an unusual side
interest for the mothers of twins who daub their children
in white clay and cook them a meal of yam and eggs.
Obviously.

THE CACI WHIP-DUELS (August, Indonesia)
7/10
Essentially a graphic illustration of the Far Eastern
concept of entertainment, two men whip each other until
bleeding occurs. The blood is then collected and used
as an offering for the spirits of ancestors. The subsequent
welts and scars are much admired by women of Ruteng.
There is, it is believed, soon to be a sister festival
in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Bill Borrows is currently writing a book about some
of the weirdest festivals in the world. Global Warning:
Bizarre And Savage Writing From Five Continents will
be available from Virgin Books early next year